William Heap (1826-1912)
Born in 1826, the son of William Heap and Mary (nee Smith) at Isles House, Padiham, Lancashire. His father owned a prosperous grocery business.
After serving an apprenticeship with an unidentified engineering company, in 1846 he secured a position as a junior engineer with William Evans (of Cambridge), contractor for the Conwy Railway Bridge. Evans had the contract for the masonry, and decided to bid for the ironwork, despite the lack of workshop facilities. He proposed constructing facilities on site. He was awarded the contract for the tubes and for the pontoons needed for floating and raising the tubes. He advertised for engineers, and William Heap was taken on.
On completion of the Conwy bridge, Heap moved with William Evans to work on the construction of the Boyne Viaduct. Major problems were encountered in trying to find a firm foundation for one of the piers, and Evans was forced into liquidation.
Heap soon obtained a leading position in the Canada Works, Birkenhead, and visited Canada in connection with the construction of the Victoria Bridge. He was in full charge of the bridge department for from 1856 to 1866.
With George Harrison, Brassey's brother-in-law, was responsible for the management of Thomas Brassey and Co.
In 1866 Heap left Mr Brassey and went into partnership with Thomas Arkle as Heap and Arkle in Liverpool, as inspectors of ironwork and machinery as well as merchants, supervising heavy contracts for India, such as wrought iron jetties for Calcutta, and bridges for America - see William Heap and Co (Liverpool)
1872 became a member of the I Mech E; of Bank Chambers, Cook Street, Liverpool
1880 of 9 Rumford Place, Liverpool.
1896 of 28 Chapel Street, Liverpool.
- A detailed biography of William Heap and the history of his company was written by John Millar and published in 1976[1]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 'William Heap and his Company 1866' by John Millar, 1976